Myanmar’s labour attaché pledges help for laid-off migrant workers in Thailand

By Admin 10 Apr 2023

DMG Newsroom
10 April 2023, Sittwe

Myanmar’s Labor Attaché Office is taking steps to help nearly 1,600 recently laid-off Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand get their jobs back.

A total of 1,022 Myanmar migrant labourers working at Cal-Comp Electronic Public Co Ltd in Samut Sakhon Province, near Bangkok, were laid off on March 31. Another 553 Myanmar migrant workers at other factories in Thailand were also laid off. They were working in the neighbouring Southeast Asian nation under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two governments.

Myanmar’s Labour Attaché Office has said it is compiling a list of their names to find new jobs for the workers. 

“After that, we will hold discussions with the relevant authorities, and help them find jobs,” said a labour attaché officer based in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

The Labor Attaché Office has so far collected the names of 1,106 out of a total of 1,575 laid-off workers.

“We are currently staying in accommodation arranged for us by employment agencies that have sent us to Thailand,” said one Myanmar migrant worker who was made redundant by Cal-Comp Electronic Public Co Ltd. “They said they are finding jobs for us. Everything is fine except that we have no job and we can’t send money back to our families.”

More than 10,000 Myanmar workers leave monthly for Thailand to work under the MoU, according to overseas employment agencies. The number of people who illegally cross the border into Thailand is higher, according to the Aid Alliance Committee, an organisation that helps Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.

Driven by high unemployment largely triggered by post-coup economic turmoil, many people from across Myanmar are leaving the country for better economic prospects overseas, whether in neighbouring Thailand or for more far-flung opportunities.